


Through the Night

by KristenElizabeth



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Friends to Lovers, Rating May Change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:53:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23416285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KristenElizabeth/pseuds/KristenElizabeth
Summary: From the moment Poe had emerged from the cave on Crait and seen her surrounded by the rocks she'd levitated to save them all, Rey had been his favorite "what if?"
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Rey
Comments: 3
Kudos: 52





	1. Poe:  Ajan Kloss

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Characters contained within do not belong to me.
> 
> Author's Notes: This is a stand-alone story, having nothing to do with my on-going series. However, that series has NOT been abandoned--it's just extremely difficult to write at the moment, considering the state of the world right now. I needed to write something lighter. Enjoy!

****

  
_All through the night_  
_I'll be awake and I'll be with you..._

  
****  
  
"What are you going to do now?" 

  
Poe supposed he should have been expecting someone to ask him that question. The war was won. The First Order had been resigned to the same dark history as the Sith and the Empire. It was time to look ahead to the future. 

  
But he'd expected the question to come from his father or Finn or one of the remaining Resistance pilots.

  
Not from the girl who'd saved them all. 

  
When he glanced over at Rey, she wasn't looking at him; her gaze was fixed on the bonfire at which they sat, neither one able to sleep. If not for the fact that they were the only people awake, he wouldn't have been entirely sure that she was even talking to him. 

  
The celebrations after the Battle of Exegol had taken their toll. All around them, people lay where they had passed out or fallen asleep, whether it was from sheer exhaustion or excessive carousing. 

  
Poe wanted to join them in oblivion, but he suspected that if he were to sleep now, his dreams would be haunted by all their friends who hadn't returned from Exegol. 

  
He took too long to answer and Rey finally tore her eyes away from the dying flames in order to look straight at him. Bandaged, with bruises already blossoming on her arms, she seemed much older than she was, not a girl anymore. It was there, in her eyes. 

  
Something had changed her. 

  
"I don't know," he finally said, giving her the truth rather than a lie that someone else might have gotten from him. "I might go back home for awhile."

  
"Where's that?" 

  
"Yavin 4. My father still lives there." Poe shrugged. "Seems like a good place to figure things out." 

  
Rey nodded, but after a moment, she said, in a determined voice that almost broke his heart, "I will never go back to Jakku." 

  
"You don't have to," he said. "Rey, you can go anywhere now." He pointed up at the stars. "Pick one." When she gave him a look, Poe shifted closer towards her, trying to ignore how she tensed up. "I'm serious. Pick one." 

  
Rey let out a little sigh, but played along. "Fine." After a cursory glance of the sky, she indicated one bright spot. "That one."

  
"An excellent choice," Poe said. "I approve." 

  
"What's it called?" 

  
He shook his head. "No idea." 

  
For the first time all evening, Rey smiled, flashing the dimple he hadn't seen in so long. Poe's throat closed up and he had to look away for a moment. Clearing his throat, he continued, "Go there and find out."

  
Several minutes of silence passed. Poe was just about to end the awkwardness and call it a night, when Rey spoke again.

  
"Actually...I was thinking about Tatooine." 

  
"Tatooine?" He frowned. "Isn't that just Jakku with organized crime?" 

  
"Luke lived there," she told him. "I just...something's just telling me to go there."

  
Poe nodded, as if this made sense. "Okay. Well...Tatooine then." 

  
"You don't approve?" she asked, wryly. 

  
"I didn't say that. Besides..." Poe scratched his chin with his shoulder. "What does it matter what I think?" 

  
Rey considered this for a second. "You're my friend." 

  
They were simple words spoken with obvious sincerity and they worked on Poe like a gallon of Corellian whiskey, warming him from the inside out. 

  
And yet, as much as he valued her friendship, there was a part of him--a part that he'd buried so deep in his mind in order to get through the war--that had been hoping for something more. From the moment he'd emerged from the cave on Crait and seen her surrounded by the rocks she'd levitated to save them all, she had been his favorite "what if?" 

  
Still, he was lucky to be her friend and that would be enough.

"I think you should go," Poe said. "But as your friend, can I ask you for one favor?"

  
"Of course."

  
He flashed her a grin. "Don't be a stranger. Okay?" Rey's bandaged brow crinkled. "I mean, you'll always have a place to stay wherever I end up." Still, she frowned. "Rey, I'm just saying that I don't want to lose contact." 

  
"Why would we lose contact?" she asked, genuinely confused. She held one up one hand. "I have more fingers on this hand than I have people left in my life, Poe. The only way we'll lose contact is if..." She hesitated. "If you want to." 

  
Poe reached out and lifted her chin up to meet his eyes. "Not going to happen," he promised. 

  
She blinked and nodded rapidly, fending off what he suspected were tears. 

  
"Hey," he said softly. "I've heard dozens of stories about Exegol tonight. Want to tell me yours?" 

Rey lost the battle with her tears and they spilled down her cheeks in rivers that shone in the firelight. "I can't," she whispered. "Not yet." 

  
"All right." A moment passed. "Want to hear mine?" To his relief, she nodded. "So, we followed your signal to Exegol and the second we came out of hyperspace..." 

  
As he talked, the first strains of dawn began to appear, signaling the end of the long night and the start of a new chapter in all their lives.

  
****

  
TBC


	2. Rey:  Tatooine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey's throat felt thick. Ever since Exegol, she'd done everything in her power not to think about Ben and their final moments together. Distracting herself had worked, but now there were no more distractions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Characters contained within do not belong to me.
> 
> Author's Notes: I hope everyone is keeping well and this new story will make you smile through everything happening in the world right now.

****

  
_All through the night_   
_This precious time, when time is new..._

  
****

  
"Rey Skywalker." 

  
Up until the second the words left her mouth, Rey had never put them together, even in her mind. But it felt right to say them. Skywalker was such a powerful name, so singularly tied to the destiny of the galaxy that she couldn't bear to see it die off. She wanted it to live on. She owed that to Luke and Leia.

  
And Ben. 

  
The woman who'd asked her name asked no more questions and once she had ridden off, Rey was alone again, facing the setting suns, with BB-8 by her side. 

  
_"Take him with you," Poe had told her as she'd prepared to leave Ajan Kloss. "He'll keep you company. Plus..." He grinned. "If you take him, then I know you'll be back someday to bring him home. You can't just disappear."_

  
Shaking off the memory of Poe's grin, Rey shielded her eyes against the brilliant sunset. Night was coming fast. 

  
One look around Luke's home was all it had taken her to decide that she would be sleeping in the Falcon, but she waited until the very last shimmering bit of sun disappeared behind the horizon before she reluctantly made her way back to the ship. 

  
The Falcon was quiet, now that the last Porg had been repatriated on Ahch-To. It was just her and BB-8. 

  
Rey reheated some rations in the small galley and ate them standing up, wandering the small living space. After she finished, BB-8 followed her down the corridor and into the sleeping quarters.

  
Although she had her pick of rooms, she'd already decided to sleep in one of the smaller bunks. The biggest room had been Han's once upon a time, and it was where Leia had stayed after their escape from Crait. Rey could still remember passing by the door and hearing Leia quietly crying inside. 

  
She'd hidden her grief over losing her husband, her brother and her son, and she'd done so for all of them, for the remainder of the Resistance. To keep them from losing hope, she'd mourned alone. 

  
Rey stood in the doorway for a long time before she worked up the courage to go in. Maybe she was imagining it, but if she closed her eyes, she could almost pick up the faintest traces of Leia's perfume. She might have been a general, but Rey's master had never quite lost all the traces of the princess she had been. 

  
The bed was neatly made, a sign that no one had been in the room since the Resistance had relocated to Ajan Kloss. Rey gingerly sat down on it, perching on the edge like a naughty child. 

BB-8 chirped, asking if she was going to sleep and whether he should power down. 

  
Rey smiled at him. "Go ahead. I'm not far behind you." 

  
With BB-8 powered down, the Falcon was even quieter. Outside the dusty window on the ceiling over the bed, Rey could see that the blue of twilight had given away to the dark of night. 

  
How many hours had Han lain on this bed, looking up at the stars watching over his ship? Had Leia done the same after Crait, perhaps remembering the times when she might have had her husband beside her? 

  
Maybe Ben had napped under this window as a child. Before he'd changed. Before Palpatine....

  
Rey's throat felt thick. Ever since Exegol, she'd done everything in her power not to think about Ben and their final moments together. Distracting herself had worked, but now there were no more distractions. 

  
A single tear slid down her cheek as she hesitantly touched her lips. No matter what happened for the rest of her life, her first kiss had been with Ben and she was glad for that. That kiss and the smile it had brought to Ben's face--they were hers now; they existed entirely in her memory and no one would ever know about them if she wanted to keep them all to herself. 

  
But the kiss had also woken up something inside of her, something she'd never even known was there until the Force had brought their minds together, made them see each other across light years. 

  
Ben's body had been a far cry from the glimpses she'd tried not to see of men at the outpost on Jakku. She knew Ben hadn't covered himself in order to throw her off, to unnerve her, and it had worked. The side effect was the ache she could feel every time she remembered that moment. 

  
Still, Ben was gone. And like Leia, she had to mourn him alone. She was the only one left who had known Ben Solo, who had seen the good in him. 

  
Who had loved him. 

  
"Ben," she whispered. "If you can hear me...if you're out there, I want you to know..." She paused. "I won't waste the life you gave me. But I don't know what I'm going to do. I was hoping I might figure it out here, but..." Rey shook her head. "It's just sand and silence." 

  
_"Rey, you can go anywhere now."_

  
A shiver ran down Rey's spine as she remembered Poe's words, but it wasn't the sentiment itself, but rather the memory of how he'd shifted closer to her as they sat before the bonfire. 

  
And how that simple movement had created a new ache. For Poe. 

  
She swiped at her tears with the back of her hand. Poe was her friend. Nothing more. Besides, she'd seen him with his friend from Kijimi--she liked Zorri Bliss and she was glad that she'd escaped before the planet was destroyed. There was history between her and Poe. History that, no doubt, would probably repeat itself now that the war was over.

  
Rey didn't know what her future held, but as for romance...no. That possibility had died with Ben. 

  
****

  
TBC

**Author's Note:**

> All Through the Night, Cyndi Lauper


End file.
